A licence to occupy New Zealand’s most expensive retirement village apartment is $11,995,000 for The Pinnacle apartment in Auckland’s St Johns.
Scott Scoullar, chief executive of owner/operator Summerset Group, said the 208sq m unit is on level five of its new Tiritiri Matangi building.
Sector experts were surprised at the price, saying it set a new benchmark.
The most expensive retirement village unit planned was a $13.75 million penthouse in Winton Land’s Northbrook to be built in the Wynyard Quarter.
But that project has been delayed indefinitely.
At The Pinnacle, views to the Waitematā Harbour and Rangitoto are one of the many dramatic features of the three-bedroom unit.
Described as a “one of a kind” retirement penthouse in the eastern suburbs area, the place has four balconies.
Those add a further 48sq m to the indoor 208sq m flooring area.
The largest balcony of 6m by 2.5m is northeastern, facing towards the city centre.
A second 3.7m x 2.5m balcony is off the master bedroom, which has a 3m-wide walk-in wardrobe.
A third 1.9m x 3.5m balcony is off the dining room.
The fourth 1.9m x 3.7m balcony is off bedroom three.
Viewing of the staged apartment is by appointment with Leonie Keatley and Jude McGaffin.
Apartment 6508 has been dressed to show buyers how it could look.
Two secure car parks are included in the price.
Three bathrooms, a separate laundry and office and a 10.1m grand entrance hallway are other features.
The Pinnacle has:
- Three bedrooms plus a study;
- Four balconies, indoor floor area 208sq m;
- European oak timber flooring;
- Outdoor kitchen with built-in fridge and BBQ;
- Gaggenau cooking appliances;
- Warming drawer and kitchen scullery;
- Instant boil/filtered water tap;
- Automated roller blinds and curtains;
- Silver travertine kitchen benchtop;
- Separate wintergarden room for year-round living;
- Automatic operable louvre system on the main balcony;
- Built-in fireplace;
- Integrated dishwasher;
- Steam oven.
“It’s outside my league,” Retirement Village Residents Association president Brian Peat said.
“Who in their right mind would pay that for a piece of paper?” he asked, referring to the $11,995,000 only buying a licence to occupy, not the title of the unit.
A 25% loss would be incurred due to how much Summerset keeps once the resident leaves the fancy unit.
That is the deferred management fee, with the Pinnacle buyer standing to forfeit $3m on departure.
Residents must also pay $279/week in ongoing fees while they are in the village and they get no capital appreciation on the unit if prices rise.
Graham Wilkinson, founder and owner of national retirement village owner Generus Group, said of The Pinnacle asking price: “I wish them well. That price seems extremely ambitious.”
Summerset was asking $57,000 per square metre, he said.
That was more than any other Auckland apartment now for sale, regardless of retirement village units, Wilkinson said.
“I don’t know anything in the total apartment market that is that expensive. That seems an incredible price.”
The apartment is at the $500m Summerset St Johns, built in a number of blocks facing a bowling green, up to eight levels high.
So far, 313 apartments have been completed.
Further stages are under construction.
Of the 313 finished apartments, Scoullar said 151 had been sold, resulting in a 48% success rate.
“The sales are good,” Scoullar said, referring to what he sees as a significant achievement in a difficult housing market.
Buyers sometimes struggle to sell their own homes to be able to move to a retirement place and they also struggle to get enough to enable the purchase of what they want.
“This is our largest capital outlay in New Zealand or Australia,” Scoullar said of St Johns, so capital-intensive because it was developed on a site of only 2.5ha, so had to go up, adding to costs.
Scoullar compares that to broadfield projects of perhaps 8ha: low-rise and therefore far cheaper to build.
Units at St Johns start at $700,000 so Scoullar said the company was catering for a variety of price points.
St Johns is not the company’s largest village by unit numbers.
Summerset on Cavendish at Casebrook in Christchurch is its largest at 389 units. The village at Ellerslie has 371 units, Nelson has 328 and Trentham has 317.
The company has $9.2 billion of assets and $2.9b of debt, giving it a comfortable 36% gearing ratio.
New Zealand’s most expensive residential sale was for more than $40m at Andersons Cove north of Auckland.
In 2021, new retirement village licence-to-occupy price records were set for just under $4m each at Wilkinson’s Foundation.
“Our most expensive pending unit sale is in the order of $6m,” Wilkinson said today.
Anne Gibson has been the Herald’s property editor for 26 years, written books and covered property extensively here and overseas.
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